McLaren MP4-12C: Built for fast fun

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The pump that drives the McLaren MP4-12C's hydraulic suspension system powers up a little too loudly for a few seconds every time you come to a stop.

That's the only thing wrong with this car. At least, that was our initial impression.

Here are our perhaps overly gushing notes, scribbled down immediately after our first of several short drives in a long day of hauling buns: “Best and greatest supercar ever! So easy and fun to drive. Easy and very progressive oversteer when you hammer the throttle or lift off a little sideways into a turn. Not much understeer, unless you really push it. Superb! Fun!”

We know, too many exclamation points. A little while later, after some contemplation, we could debate the styling, maybe the steering (though not really) and a few other points, but you'd be hard-pressed to find any big, obvious areas that need improvement on the McLaren MP4-12C. Unless you owned a 458, because the Ferrari 458 is really the only thing that comes close to the McLaren MP4-12C.

This is almost exactly the same car that we drove a year ago (“Slide-Rule Sexy,” Autoweek, March 7, 2011), but McLarens have been on sale since December, and anyone with $231,400 can go into any of the 34 dealers in 18 countries and buy one.

When you see the MP4-12C in all its carbon-fiber, composite glory, it looks even nicer than it does in photographs. However, it doesn't look as nice as, say, a 458. That's because the 12C's exterior was shaped almost entirely by function. Designer Frank Stephenson said he was allowed to work “wherever the air doesn't touch it, which is pretty much everywhere.” So we don't see the same taut lines that appear on his earlier work, the Maserati MC12 and Quattroporte or the Ferrari F430.

Inside, there were no aerodynamic considerations. The climate controls are on the door, for instance, and everything else is on the center console. You see the tops of the front fenders very clearly, which hide the tops of the front Pirellis. (“Great visibility is better than another 100 hp,” Stephenson said.) Ahead of that, the road or the track spills out in front of you.

When you push the start button, the 3.8-liter twin-turbo roars to life, ready to dispense its 592 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. It is a sound that is not unpleasant. “It's very purposeful but not obnoxious,” Stephenson said.

“The rumble of an elephant,” said McLaren managing director Anthony Sheriff. Make that a 205-mph carbon-fiber elephant capable of 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds.

Select the normal mode for the suspension, click into gear, and you're off. The first thing you notice is that this car is very easy to drive. We could imagine driving it every day. It is easy to sit in, handles low-speed traffic slogging gracefully and doesn't wear you out. The dual-clutch transmission doesn't hesitate or clunk around town between traffic lights. A manual transmission was never really considered for two reasons. “Nobody'd want it,” said Sheriff. “And the car is tightly packaged around two pedals.”

Once we got a little more room to maneuver, we stepped on the right one, which instantly returned sonorous music and blinding speed in equal measure. We didn't clock our 0-to-60-mph time to see whether it matched McLaren's claimed 3.2 seconds, but it certainly felt that fast. There aren't many cars that will give you a 3.2, and fewer still can do it with so little work. A separate launch control does most of the complicated stuff for you. All you have to do is set it, launch, and keep steering.

Next, we moved the suspension to sport and headed up into the mountains on a four-lane twisting thoroughfare. The ProActive Chassis Control immediately went to work keeping the car flat in turns to maximize grip. McLaren's take on automatic suspension allows for a more livable amount of feedback to the driver than the Porsche system, which seems to filter out too much. With a little bit of traffic in the hills, we didn't push it very hard. At half throttle, it was still a joy to drive.

We did push it on the track, though. Driving on the road course inside the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., requires not much more than a series of double-lane-change maneuvers that lack any artistry or rhythm. Nonetheless, the McLaren made the most of it. The Pirelli P Zeros—235/35 front and 305/30 rear, wrapped around 19-inch wheels in front and 20s in the rear—gave way easily and predictably. For more serious drivers, Pirelli Corsa rubber is available (which McLaren says improves 0-to-60-mph time to 3.0 seconds). As it was, we enjoyed sliding around a little in the turns. This would make a terrific drift car, we thought; just don't hit anything.

The difference between sport and track modes was less noticeable than between normal and sport, but it kept the car going and going fast. The short straights on the road course got us up into fourth gear and called for some heavy braking at each end. When you step on the brake at speed, the rear wing flips up to 90 degrees in a quarter of a second, not to slow the car but to stabilize it, moving the center of aerodynamic pressure rearward, like deploying feathers on an arrow.

Does any of this help you make the choice between the 458 and the 12C? Or the Lexus LF-A or even the Nissan GT-R? Maybe not. The 458 has slightly better steering, sending just a little more feedback to the wheel. And it's better-looking, making concessions to style over efficiency. The McLaren is highly efficient, easy and fun to drive, even if it lacks the cachet of a Ferrari. The LFA is stable, fast and fun. The GT-R costs a lot less.